Family Holiday Destinations Podcast
Welcome to Family Holiday Destinations, the podcast that inspires families to explore the world together! From top destinations and interviews with experts to practical tips and the latest family travel news, we’re here to inspire and help you plan unforgettable adventures.
Family Holiday Destinations Podcast
African Safari for Families + How to Choose Your Next Destination
In this episode of the Family Holiday Destinations podcast, we’re covering everything from practical gear to wild African adventures. First up in travel news: the brand-new Ergobaby travel stroller, a handy booking resource for finding Europe’s best waterparks, and the exciting opening of the Monarto Safari Park Resort.
Then we dive into the big feature: an inspiring chat with Deon De Villiers from Safari Guru, where we unpack how to plan your first family African safari - from choosing the right country to safety tips, budgeting, and why booking with a specialist can make all the difference.
Considering a family African Safari adventure? Check out this article over on the website: https://familyholidaydestinations.com/family-african-safari-first-timers-guide/
We wrap up with ways to choose your next holiday destination, from following your favourite movies, to checking out Lonely Planet’s new Where to Go When with Kids book, to exploring the rising trend of astrocartography.
Thanks for tuning in to the Family Holiday Destinations podcast! For more travel tips, destination guides, and family-friendly inspiration, visit our website at familyholidaydestinations.com. Until next time, happy travels and safe adventures!
Welcome to the Family Holiday Destinations podcast, where we inspire your next family adventure. I'm Jessica Palmer, mother of two and founder of Family Holiday Destinations, and today we're diving into a whole range of exciting travel goodness.
Speaker 01:We'll start with a look at some fresh family travel news, including a compact stroller that might just change the game for parents on the go, and a new European website that helps you find the best water park across the continent. We'll also take a quick peek at South Australia's brand new Monarto Safari Resort, and it's every bit as wild as it sounds. Then, while we're on the topic of safaris, we're jumping into the big topic for today, planning your very first African safari with kids.
Speaker 01:If you've always dreamed about doing something a little different, something that's not just beaches and buffets, this episode is for you. I'll be joined by Dion from Safari Guru to answer all the questions you probably have but didn't know who to ask. We'll then wrap up with a quick travel tip on how I choose destinations. Hint, I'm very, very easily influenced by movies. Plus a peek at Lonely Planet's new Where to Go When with Kids book and a bizarre new trend that involves planning your holidays based on your astrological birth chart. Yes, that's apparently now a thing.
Speaker 01:Let's kick off with a few updates in the family travel world that caught my attention this month.
Speaker 01:Ergo Baby launched a new luxe travel stroller. Ergo Baby's popular Metro 3 compact stroller just got an upgrade. The new Metro 3 Deluxe is travel light approved, carry-on compatible, and packed with parent-friendly features like a magnetic buckle, cup holders, and a shoulder strap for easy carrying. It's also got what they call the roomiest seat in its class and all-terrain suspension, so your baby or toddler gets a smooth ride, even if you're bouncing down cobblestones in Italy. As a side note, I've always been a huge fan of Ergo Baby. I was blessed with two babies that had an aversion to sleeping, so my Ergo Baby carrier went with me everywhere, even on hikes. In fact, I wrote about it this month in our Hiking with Toddlers article on the Family Holiday Destinations website.
Speaker 01:Splashfan.com launches a handy waterpark search tool for Europe. A new site called Splashfan.com has launched and as the parent of a now 10 and 12 year old, I think it's simply genius. It's basically a website that helps families discover and compare over 170 waterparks across Europe. You can filter by country, ride types, kids areas, accessibility and more. Think of it like Booking.com but for water slides. Hopefully they will expand into other continents soon.
Speaker 01:Monarto Safari Resort opens in South Australia. Australia's largest safari park just got an upgrade. The new Monarto Safari Resort near Adelaide lets you stay overnight with views of giraffes, rhinos and cheetahs. There are hotel rooms, luxury safari tents and even dawn and dusk tours exclusive to resort guests. It's the closest you'll get to Africa without leaving Australia.
Speaker 01:If you'd like more information on any of these news items, you'll find them in the news section of the Family Holiday Destinations website.
Speaker 01:Speaking of safaris, after watching the Adam Sandler movie 'Blended' a few years back, the idea of a family African safari made its way onto my bucket list. But truth be told, most of my travel experience is in Asia, Australia, the South Pacific and the US. And so, well, I have a lot of questions. So I called in an expert. You're about to hear from Deon de Villiers, the founder of Safari Guru, who answers some of the biggest questions families have when thinking about an African safari.
Speaker 01:Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. And can you tell me a bit about yourself and how Safari Guru came about?
Speaker 00:Absolutely. So it's a pleasure and thank you for inviting me. I was once in the corporate world here in Australia. And after eight years of doing that and sitting on airplanes, I decided to go back to Africa and live Africa as I suppose started off as a tourist. I went back with my partner and we bought a vehicle and we just drove. And we just drove and we visited different parts, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. South Africa, obviously my home country, living out of the back of the vehicle and a tent. And after a while of doing that, we landed up in a safari camp. We were going there for lunch and a chat with the owners and we never left. Needless to say, that's where our safari career started, eventually becoming part owners in the camp. After an eight or nine year tenure at that lodge, we went up to Botswana. and started working for a larger safari organization where I ran the operations for a number of safari camps in the Okavango Delta, which is when our little family came along. Little children get to the point where they need schooling, proper schooling, you know.
Speaker 01:Yeah, I know all about that. Yep.
Speaker 00:So we decided, look, it's time to get real and come back to Australia and also let our children experience more time with grandparents and do the normal family thing. After that long of running safari camps and safari camp operations, and I used to specialize in walking safaris and photographic safaris. Anyway, and that's all I knew. And so many of our clients that I'd engaged with over the many years were still in contact. And then my contacts, they were looking at me to give them advice on where to go and what's the safest things to do and where's exciting, where's off the beaten track, what's untouched. So that's where Safari Guru was born.
Speaker 01:So you've lived through it. I've read some of your articles on the website and I can see you have baboons stealing dolls, lions outside the tent. As Australians, we're not usually too concerned about that, but that does sound a bit concerning. Is safari actually safe for kids?
Speaker 00:Safari is incredibly safe for kids. When you go on safari and when you live safari, it's two very different things. I'm certainly not going to say that I took chances with my children, but we did a lot of things together that we wouldn't necessarily do with our clients. Like my son and I, he was only a few years old, and we'd jump on the boat and disappear into the Okavango Delta for a few days and sleep in a little two-man tent on an island, you know, quite often with, like, elephants coming through and feeding around the tent.
Speaker 00:So I think when you live the safari life, you probably become more complacent. And, you know, the things that happen behind the scenes are often with the people that live in the bush. It's very seldom with guests, you know, your travellers. We'll put it this way. We vet all of the companies that that we send people to, either operators, right? We know them, we've stayed with them, we've traveled with them. We make sure we only use the best operators in Africa to get the results we want. When we book our trips for families, for our families, we make sure we use proper reputable camps and we put together the best safaris offering the best experiences in a safe environment.
Speaker 01:So how do lodgers cater for families with young kids?
Speaker 00:There's various ways of catering and it depends on what young is, you know, definition of young really. The first thing then is we would be saying, okay, then perhaps let's focus on a camp that's in a location that, first of all, doesn't have malaria. You actually get geographic locations that are malaria-free due to winter temperatures or other conditions. So we would actually then focus on those type properties. And then within those areas, furthermore, you can also get certain safari camps that are fenced. And that's done in a very nice way. It's not like you're sitting there like with, big massive fences around you. They're just discreet, you know. So it's a safe environment. You're not going to get an elephant coming in or a lion coming in or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 00:But, you know, then with families with six- and seven-year-olds, more adventurous families, we would send them to places like Botswana or Zimbabwe where there wouldn't be fences. And it's a truly wild environment. But once again, there we would know the operators we're sending them to. And, you know, my rule of thumb is, and very much for all of our safaris gurus our rule is if we wouldn't feel comfortable taking our families to that location
Speaker 01:Yes
Speaker 00:we would not send you there. We have clients saying Dion is it safe you know um and whenever they say that that is what I think to myself would I go there tomorrow with my two little children yes or no yeah. If I have to hesitate and even think about it I don't send you there yeah
Speaker 01:So obviously, teenagers are a different ballgame than toddlers most of the time. In some ways, they're the same. But what activities might we expect to see a family, like of all ages, do on a safari?
Speaker 00:Look, a good safari guide can keep the whole family engaged. Teenagers... In today's world, yes, love their phones. They love to be connected. I think when you go out on a three-hour safari drive, generally your safari drive is three to three-and-a-half hours in the morning and in the afternoon. I think when you go out, it's a suitable amount of time to keep the engagement. So your younger children, I mean, they would get engaged with just about anything, right?
Speaker 01:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 00:A good safari guide, though, would know– when to get mid-aged children off a vehicle. Let's go have a look at these tracks. Let's interpret what's happening around us. And they can do that. They can very much do that by looking at tracks, listening to birds, listening to alarm calls, and getting their family involved. That it's not just the safari guide making decisions on do we turn left at the next corner or do we turn right? What's going to find us these lions that are busy following, you know, or leopard or whatever the case may be. It's getting everybody on the vehicle engaged and involved with the process of your safari result. And you'll find when you do that, your three hours actually goes quite quickly. We don't lose anybody.
Speaker 00:Of course, on some days, maybe due to weather or whatever the case may be, your wildlife viewing might be not as good as other days. And then the guide is to work a little bit harder. Find different ways to engage the family. Look, I can probably count on one hand where I've actually seen even teenage children say, look, I'm just so bored here, you know. And I kind of got the feeling that those ones were not going to be happy with anything anyway.
Speaker 01:You weren't going to be able to please them. Yes. So you've said a smart safari starts with a smart budget. But for families that are on a tighter budget, is an African safari still possible?
Speaker 00:It is possible. Look. Safaris are expensive. And even your modest-type safari, it's a lot of dollars. But there are certainly some safaris that are more accessible. One popular option as an example would be a mobile safari. We've got a family actually leaving in just a few weeks, two weeks, a lovely family who have got two teenage sons. And they've got a private vehicle, and it's the four of them going for two weeks through some of the really... more wild destinations in Kenya and then on to Tanzania.
Speaker 01:So when you say mobile safari, do you mean camping at a different spot each night as opposed to going back to like a luxury lodge kind of thing?
Speaker 00:There's two ways to do it. So actually the ones in Kenya are actually staying at lodges. But the one that I made mention of in Botswana, yes, absolutely. It's camping, but it's camping with a difference. You're not getting out of your vehicle and setting up a tent. The operator would still have three or four people personnel on site and they would set up your tent for you and you'd stay in that tent for three nights
Speaker 01:oh yes yeah
Speaker 00:then, you would go out on morning drive and go a slightly longer drive and magically come back to a different destination. And your tent is all set up in that destination.
Speaker 01:Oh that sounds like my type of camping,
Speaker 00:Right? Exactly right. And not only that, but you've got a chef, a mobile camping chef, and he's got bread for you on the fire and your soup made over the fire and everything's ready for you and you've got hot meals. So, yeah, it's camping with a difference. But that is probably your most cost-effective way of camping.
Speaker 01:So you've got some great stories from the bush. Do your own kids have a favourite safari moment or a funny moment?
Speaker 00:We've got so many. Strangely enough, we've been out of the bush now for six years. But these African stories come up at dinner every single night. But certainly when the baboons stole the doll, that is a big day at Mambo camp. Don't leave your doll lying around in the camp. We did get the doll back though. But yeah, you know, from baboons, from monkeys coming through and stealing lunch.
Speaker 00:You know, there's so many, but just moments that we've sat as a family and, well, actually quite a cool day as well was the day we actually weaned my little girl, my daughter, off her bottle. We were sitting on a small little, like a weir, like a little dam, like it was part of the Okavango Delta. Anyway, I pretended to throw her bottle into the hippos. It was about 89 hippos and the bottle quickly slipped behind the seat of my vehicle and my daughter watched as these hippos apparently consumed a bottle and she never touched the bottle from that day on. She was like, what? Okay, well, that's that.
Speaker 00:But we also used to have a lot of fun in the central Kalahari of Botswana, where in one of the safari camps, there was about seven or eight Khoisan people, commonly referred to as Bushmen. Some people don't like the term Bushmen, but they call themselves Bushmen themselves. So it's quite a common term. And these Bushmen... And my children became quite close over time because we'd go there quite regularly. And they'd get the children involved and go and pick flowers and learn the medicinal uses of the flowers. And of course, for me, it made wonderful photographic moments. So those were probably some treasured moments we had in the bush. Those are very good memories for us.
Speaker 01:So there's a lot of different safari styles, tented camps, luxury lodges, the mobile safaris you talked about. Do you recommend a particular one for first-time families or will it just depend on the family?
Speaker 00:It depends on the family. We do have people sometimes saying we want to go to Namibia and that's our first-time trip and I talk them out of that. I don't think that destination fits the first-time safari. But certainly if it's young children, we would steer them to malaria-free areas. I don't want to send a family to Africa that they have to sit there and panic the whole time because then you defeat the purpose of being on holiday, right?
Speaker 01:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 00:First timers, Zimbabwe, even Kenya, Tanzania, all of them offer– like within those destinations, it's more about choosing the camp that's better for the first-time safari goer. You know, I'll often stay away from– You know, you get flies and other biting creatures. I tend to avoid those areas for first-time safari goers because they probably wouldn't want to go back if they get bitten a hundred times.
Unknown:Yes.
Speaker 01:Don't want to scare them up on their first trip, do you?
Speaker 00:We had a family that went with one little boy recently and they wanted to see as much of other areas as safari. So in that instance, we kept looking at South Africa and we tacked on other exciting opportunities. Ended up at Cape Town for a while and had been to the Winelands for a while where we set up some activities and they actually went out and did some daytime activities with a private guide. You know, if a family only wants to do three or four days of safari, You're not going to send them somewhere that's going to waste time on logistics. We always try and reduce logistics. You know, every time you go through a border, there's visa fees. And Africa's a tipping culture as well. And the tips can add up to a lot of money as well. So we try and reduce all of those handshakes to keep it stress-free and to achieve maximum on-the-ground result.
Speaker 01:So do you have a favourite destination or national park in Africa that you think is underrated for families?
Speaker 00:Look, I spent a lot of time in Madikwe Game Reserve, which is really cool. You know, that's one of the areas that I spoke about as being malaria-free. And in Madikwe, just like other areas of the Kruger, you know, the private game reserves adjacent to the Kruger, like the Sabi and the Timbavati, we know you're going to get really good wildlife viewing results in only a few days, right? You don't have to go there for a week and a half to see all of the major species. Unless you tell me, well, there's a particular species I want to see or a particular group of animals I want to see, then we'll choose maybe something a bit different. For me, though, my all-time favorite is, of course, the swan. I mean, that's where I spent a lot of my time. So the Okabanga Delta and doing a safari, there's something really rewarding to me about seeing animals from a boat. It just feels like a much more peaceful approach. And when you've got families and you can break time up between a vehicle and a boat and
Speaker 01:Yes.
Speaker 00:I think it really, really helps to keep those children more involved.
Speaker 01:So what are some non-wildlife spotting experiences that families can expect to do if they go on an African safari style holiday? So
Speaker 00:look, fishing is certainly one. I mean, if you go to Zimbabwe or even Botswana and you catch tiger fish, It's probably the most exciting fishing you can ever do, you know. And of course, we promote catch and release. It's all catch and release, right? So the guides in safari camps know that and they adhere to those rules and you put everything back. You can also do walk-in safaris, but there are age limits. There's also age limits on makora or let's call it canoe types of luck, you know, on a canoe or kayak. But that's also a very exciting way to explore the land. It also allows you to focus on some of the smaller species. Once you go past the big, you know, what we call the jaws, claws and paws of the bush. Yes. Once you go past that and you've ticked off lion and you've ticked off leopard and you've ticked off elephant and giraffe, we start working on the smaller species. And once you start focusing on the smaller species, a whole new world opens up. And once you get interested in those smaller species, you can never be bored. And even having a guard getting your travelers off a vehicle and interpreting what they're seeing on the ground, you know, there's a hyena track on the, on the ground. This is why it's a hyena track. And he walked you at four o'clock this morning, which sounds a little bit like, you know, like a crocodile Dundee-ish, doesn't it? But there's good reason for him saying that, you know, he might see an insect track that goes over the hyena track and the insect is something that's only active during the daytime. Once you start to suffer in all of this, you can spend hours, looking at the smaller things and actually working out what's going on, which is a great way to keep the family entertained. And often it leads to actually finding the animals anyway. So there's that sense of achievement.
Speaker 01:So you've helped hundreds of Aussies plan their dream safari. What makes Safari Guru different from just like booking a trip online or going through a general travel agent? I mean, obviously the expertise plays a huge part.
Speaker 00:Sure. There's a very big difference in how we put a safari together. I'm certainly not putting any travel agents down because we've all got our place in this industry, right? But we design a safari based upon our knowledge, your specific needs. A travel agent in general would be selling the safari based upon a brochured package. And in our industry, I don't think one size fits all. We have never done a single safari exactly the same. The other fundamental difference, we get to know our clients really well. And it's first name basis. So when our clients travel, we connected the whole time via WhatsApp or Messenger or whatever it is that we choose, whatever your preferred method of connection is. And we are there. Some of our safari gurus sit in South Africa and one in London. So we're within the African time zone. And it's that hand-holding. that makes our clients really comfortable. When they reach out, whether it be me or Ashley or Alan, whichever one of our Safari gurus they've engaged with, that person is there and it's first name. It's not, what's your reference number? What's your package
Speaker 01:Yeah.
Speaker 00:Yes Hey Dion, it's Jessica here. We're sitting in the airport. We've heard the plane's going to be late. How's this going to affect our Safari flight?
Speaker 01:Yeah.
Speaker 00:Yes Jessica here. We're sitting in the airport. We've heard the plane's going to be late. How's this going to affect our Safari flight? Don't worry, Jessica. We're telling them, but the plane will wait for you and we're just notifying them. There'll be somebody to meet you. They're going to walk you through customs a little bit faster. That's us.
Speaker 01:Oh, that's great. And so last question, for any families dreaming about Africa, but they don't know where to start, where should they begin?
Speaker 00:First, they've got to have a dream, right?
Speaker 01:Yep.
Speaker 00:Once they've got that dream, then we make the magic happen. I can't stress enough, speak to a specialist and share your dream and then see what they come back with. And let them come back with those thoughts and options tailored around what you need. In Africa, what a lot of people don't realize, in a geographical space the size of Australia, in Africa, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique, Uganda, Rwanda, they're all different countries. The only handhold between those countries is the operator that's making this happen for you. Yes. And once you walk through that border, there's a different currency, there's a different language, there's a different custom. And all of these items don't necessarily come together. So our internet-based research can be destination-specific, but it's very, very difficult to marry multiple destinations. So the process of safari mostly requires multiple countries. Yeah. And destination specialists like us will actually know the gaps and the best ways to do that.
Speaker 01:Excellent. Well, thank you so much for answering all my questions today, Dion. Thank you. I really do appreciate your time. Okay.
Speaker 01:How do you decide where to go on holiday? For me, movies have been a major influence. I went to China after watching the remake of The Karate Kid, the one with Jaden Smith, not the latest one. I haven't had a chance to watch that yet, unfortunately. I booked Bora Bora after watching Vin Diesel jump into those sparkly aqua blues in Triple X, and I ended up in Nevada after watching the alien comedy, Paul. Of course, there's also the matter of price and school holiday timing. Now, apparently this way of choosing your holiday destination is called set jetting, and it's exploded in popularity. I, for one, am not surprised.
Speaker 01:But I recently flipped through Lonely Planet's new book, Where to Go When, with kids, and it's brilliant. You can search destinations by month. So if September is your only travel window, the book suggests everything from North Queensland in Australia to Hawaii, to through to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and Osaka in Japan, and it explains why. It's a great tool if you're stuck in planning limbo.
Speaker 01:And hey, if that's still too structured for you, according to Travel Weekly, astrocartography is trending. What is astrocartography, you ask? It's when travelers choose their destination based on where the stars say they should go. Yep, your birth chart might be the new TripAdvisor. Royal Caribbean even got on board with this trend partnering with an astrologer to recommend cruises based on planetary alignments wild right So that wraps up our latest podcast episode.
Speaker 01:A big thanks to Dion from Safari Guru for sharing his expertise and giving up his time to answer all those questions that parents like us are probably too embarrassed to ask. I hope this chat has inspired you to dream big, whether it's the Serengeti or South Australia's own safari resort. For more details, links, and family-friendly tips, head to the Family Holiday Destinations website at familyholiday.com. And if you've ever taken your kids on safari or you're planning to, I would love to hear from you until next time, happy travels and enjoy making those family memories.